Chicago Tribune

I'm glad that At The Movies has new hosts. The two Bens just didn't work out. The new hosts in the reviewing chairs are A.O. Scott from The New York Times and Michael Phillips from The Chicago Tribune, both of whom filled in for Roger Ebert several times. Here's a preview where the two critics tell us about themselves.

Funny how the announcer says that there will be "serious reviews" by "serious journalists." I'm taking that as a dig at Ben and Ben. It premieres this weekend.

Last season on Entourage, when Vincent Chase decided to put his own money into Medellin it was a major risk and he knew it. He was rolling the dice on his career, taking a leap of faith by choosing to do a controversial biography of a vicious Colombian drug lord. In Spanish. Directed by a hot-headed genius/madman named Billy Walsh.

Vinney was playing with dynamite. It wasn't good for Vincent's career, but it was great for Entourage. Failure is always funnier than success, isn't it?

Well, as bad as viewers thought Medellin seemed to be based on the brief scenes we saw last season, in the September 7th premiere on HBO, the media weighs in. At the Movies' critics Michael Phillips and Richard Roeper filmed a fictional review of Medellin to be shown in season premiere of Entourage, and it's not good. In fact, if they were stilling using the thumb-o-meter, Medellin would get two big thumbs-down.

In case you didn't know it, Bruce Campbell is my new BFF. Ever since my visit to the set, I have a new appreciation for the man. So, it pains me to report that Bruce recently was filming in Miami when he came up lame.

While chatting with Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune, creator Matt Nix was talking about the new season of Burn Notice -- more on that below -- when he casually mentioned Bruce Campbell was hurt on the set. "He actually just pulled his hamstring doing a stunt, I just got a call, he's on the way to the hospital."

Well, here's a rather quirky idea for an internet list/slide show: who has the best and worst logos when it comes to reality shows?

The Chicago Tribune picks the good and the bad. They really get into it, talking about why certain fonts don't work (or do work), why the angle of the Project Runway logo is all wrong ("the logo grows out horizontally and vertically, more like a plane than a runway"), and even why The Real World logo is perfect. I don't think they've even changed the logo in the 20 seasons the show has been on the air. (Note: I'm not sure if this is also in the print edition of the Chicago Tribune or not, but online the logos look terrible, at least on my screen.)

Now that Shrek-mania, Spider-mania, Pirates-mania, Transformers-mania, Rat-mania, Potter-mania and Evan Almighty-mania have come and gone this summer it's time for Simpsons-mania to rev itself up in anticipation of The Simpsons theatrical release at the end of this month. What better way to get into the swing of things than to vote for your favorite Simpsons character.

That's easily done, courtesy of The Chicago Tribune's Redeye website. The first round of voting featured sixteen match-ups. Among those competing were Homer versus Selma and Patty, Marge versus Fat Tony, and Bart versus Principal Skinner. The best match-up, according to the website, was Comic Book Guy versus Apu. Out of nearly 10,000 responses Apu beat C.B.G. with 62% of the vote.

Did you see Paris Hilton on Larry King Live last night? Here's the transcript. Jeez, she really did nothing to help her cause, eh? She seems honestly, sincerely, and deeply clueless. And as a guy, I don't even find her hot or appealing. She has the personality of a wicker chair. I found all of her talk about wanting to help people and learning her lesson and "reading the Bible" completely unconvincing.

After the jump is a roundup of what the internet is saying today about her appearance.

Ever watch HBO's Big Love and feel a tad bit envious of the wives? Ever find yourself wishing there was another wife kicking around the house with whom you could talk, whose refrigerator you could raid and with whom you could watch repeats of the Sopranos and curse the series' ending?

Well, a Michigan woman does. In fact, Michele Gazzolo said in a Chicago Tribuneessay that she covets the fictional Big Love wives' coziness and says she and her neighbors refer to one another as "sister wives," even though they don't share a hubby. "We found ourselves confessing that plural marriage didn't look so terrible, even in a drama filled with suffering and intrigue," Gazzolo wrote.

You know, it's been so long since I've seen the last episode of Deadwood that I'll have to go back and watch it again to prepare for the two movies that will end the western saga. I think the last scene showed Gerald McRaney on his way out of town, probably heading to Jericho, Kansas.

But there's no rush. According to this story at the Chicago Tribune, not only are the two movies not going to air until 2008 at the earliest, but (according to cast member W. Earl Brown), the stars of the show haven't even signed contracts to appear in the TV flicks. But creator David Milch said a couple of months that he is "committed" to finishing the movies.

Whoa. I did not expect the seemingly invincible Bauer to be defeated by anyone. In just this season alone, Bauer has deactivated a nuclear weapon, wielded a cigar cutter as an amputation device against a Russian diplomat and used plastic wrap as an interrogation tool on his own brother. Just mere hours after being released from a Chinese prison. I guess Bauer has met his match, and it's not in the form of a terrorist.

It's March Madness time. But why should college basketball fans have all the fun? The Chicago Tribune'sRedEye is having a contest to determine who's the best character on TV.

Set up into brackets a la the NCAA tourney, the contest is already down to the elite eight . And, just like the tournament, at least one of the elite eight match-ups is no contest. Who doesn't think that Dr. Gregory House, of House, will beat Dwight Schrute from The Office?

The Chicago Tribune's TV critic Maureen Ryan thinks that the sudden appearance of Gregory Itzin, reprising his role as the corrupt and evil former President Charles Logan on 24, is a rare shining moment in a rather lackluster season, the first hour hours notwithstanding.

". . . [I]t's as though the writers are flailing and scraping and doing all they can to come up with compelling stuff, but unfortunately they're only partially successful at best," Ryan said, as she sliced and diced Jack Bauer's sixth day, including calling the idea of having the late President David Palmer's brother Wayne become president " a big mistake."

The Chicago Tribune has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit to stop the Fox News Channel from using the name Red Eye for its late-night round table show. For those of you outside of Chicago, RedEye is a weekday offering from the Tribune aimed at readers in their 20s and 30s. The Tribune has also requested unspecified damages. You may be wondering to yourself, did the Tribune sue the film Red Eye, too? No, they didn't, but the Tribune isn't just delivering the karmic comeuppance to Fox for their own "fair and balanced" lawsuit. There's a reason why the Tribune has gone all litigious.

Because Red Eye, which features blogger Greg Gutfeld as its host, covers current events, politics and pop culture in a colloquial manner - much as the Tribune's tabloid offering does - the assumption might be made that the two are collaborating. I'm not sure who would make that assumption, but apparently, someone would. So, there you go, another day in the life of intellectual property law.

In this spoiler-filled article (read at your own risk - seriously!) in the Chicago Tribune, the producers of Battlestar Galactica confirm they are making a 2-hour movie between seasons 3 and 4. The news ends a few weeks of speculation. David Eick and Ron Moore say the movie will go straight to DVD and also air on SciFi. It will be a stand-alone flick that doesn't wrap up what is sure to be a freaking huge-ass cliffhanger at the end of the current season. The producers say the movie will probably be some sort of back story. The Chicago Tribune story is a little dated, though. In it, the producers say they'll only do a movie if they get a fourth season, but that has already happened.

By the way, BSG returns with new episodes on Sunday, January 21st at 10 pm. There's a season 3 marathon on SciFi on January 15th.

The gals who sit in the studio audience at Oprah can be brutal. One former audience member is suing Oprah's production company, claiming she was injured in the mad dash to get a good seat. Tayna Milner said she was pushed down some stairs at Harpo Studios in Chicago before a taping on April 11th. Milner is seeking more than $50,000 in damages for unspecified injuries, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. She is claiming that Harpo employees failed to keep control of the crowd of 40-something mothers with makeovers and cardigan sweaters (okay, I made up that last part).

This whole story goes along with how I picture Oprah's audience when it's not being taped. I always imagine women pulling each other's hair and dumping out their purses in the fight to get a good seat.

The centerpiece of the Betty fest is a nice tribute to the Norman Lear-ish quality of the series' concerns with class and ethnicity, but the big fun comes in the forms of revealing interviews with Vanessa Williams, Michael Urie, Ana Ortiz and the show's creator Silvio Horta. There's also a piece on Justin's sexuality and Marc's guide to being the perfect assistant.